


Quickening

by elistaire



Series: Highlander50 Prompt Response [6]
Category: Highlander: The Series
Genre: F/M, Gen, Prompt Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-04
Updated: 2011-04-04
Packaged: 2017-10-17 13:54:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 707
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/177540
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elistaire/pseuds/elistaire
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tessa spends some time with her friends, just chatting and eating.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Quickening

**Author's Note:**

> Written for a Highlander 50 prompts challenge. This one was "Quickening".

"So, anyway, after I found out about Jacqueline, we broke it off," Mara concluded. She took a long sip of wine, putting it down with a little shake of her head.

"You're better off without him," Sophie said.

Rachel said, "Yeah, he didn't deserve you."

Sophie snorted and smiled wickedly. "None of them deserve us."

It caused Rachel and Mara to dissolve into giggles. Tessa sipped at her ice water and signaled to the waiter.

"It's true," Sophie said when she finally regained the ability to speak. "We wash their clothes, clean the house--"

"Birth their children," Rachel reminded then, one hand on her belly. She was due in just over a month.

"Exactly." Sophie was counting things on the tips of her fingers. "Balance their checkbooks--"

The waiter appeared at Tessa's elbow. "Will the young ladies be having dessert today?" he asked.

Sophie and Rachel burst into giggles again, but the waiter didn't seem offended, he just smiled.

Mara looked to Tessa. "Want to split one of the chocolate-lava cakes?"

Tessa nodded and turned to the waiter to quietly order two. When they arrived, she was sure Mara would want her own, and a full dessert helped to heal a broken heart better than half a dessert.

"Oooh, now that sounds good," Rachel said. "One for me."

"And me," chimed in Sophie. "And decaf coffee all around."

When the waiter had left with their order, Mara turned to Tessa. "You're so lucky, Tess. Out of everyone, you hit the jackpot."

"I do love Duncan very much," Tessa said, "but I doubt I am the only one hitting the jackpot. You'll find someone for you, I just know you will."

Mara shook her head. "I don't think so. I seem doomed to be eternally single."

"It does have its upsides," Rachel said thoughtfully. "After all, if you don't have a boyfriend or a husband, you can't worry about him all night long."

Tessa knew that her husband was a firefighter and that it was considered a very dangerous profession. Sometimes Rachel called her when her husband was out fighting a fire. It was always a matter of waiting and keeping one's mind occupied, otherwise the fear would swallow you whole. Tessa had never been able to confide in her, but she knew intimately what it was like to wait, ignorant of what was happening, to have her love come home safely, or not at all.

She glanced out the window of the restaurant, to the sky. The afternoon was lovely with blue skies and sunshine. In her mind, though, she could see the storms--those that signaled a quickening, and the death of an Immortal. At least Rachel could know about her husband's dangers. For Tessa, it was not signaled by a call to a firehouse, but by the worry of an empty home when she returned, never knowing what may have happened, until Duncan at last came through the door again and she knew he was safe.

"Tessa?" Rachel asked softly.

"Just thinking," Tessa said and smiled

Mara shrugged and kept on with the topic. "I think I'd rather have a man to worry about, than none at all."

Sophie laughed. "Oh, that's a cliché. How does the saying go? It's better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all?"

"Something like that," Tessa said. She thought of Duncan and the years they had spent together. Years she wouldn't have traded in a heartbeat. The saying had a lot of painful truth to it.

Mara sighed heavily. "It's the lost part that I'm dealing with at the moment."

"Find yourself a nice accountant or a bank manager or something," Sophie suggested. "They hardly go anywhere. Like my husband. Some days it's all I can do to get him out of the house!"

The waiter appeared with a tray of chocolate lava-cakes and coffee, placing each item down on the table. "And one for the beautiful lady," he said with a flourish to Mara, who didn't mention she'd planned on sharing one. She and Tessa exchanged grins.

Mara picked up a spoon. "And if there are no good men, I suppose there's always chocolate."

After that, there really wasn't much more to discuss.


End file.
